Ahhh... So today was one of those days when you're on vacation that you actually think that vacation is real life and you totally forget that you have work and responsibilities and a life somewhere else in the world. We had a free day to completely enjoy our fabulous resort and spa hotel (the Magellan Sutera) in the tropical paradise of Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of the state of Sabah. We woke up late for a change and leisurely ate our breakfast at around 10am. After finishing up and arranging our room neatly so that the cleaning personnel could restore it, we headed down to the resort jetty and booked a snorkeling trip to Mandukan, a small island about 15 minutes off the coast of the mainland. Sabah supposedly has some of the most amazing marine life and is touted that Jacques Cousteau declared it some of the best diving in the world.
We headed off on a motor boat to the island and found a nice spot on the small beach. I decided to go snorkeling first, while Jack guarded our stuff. After about 15 minutes of swimming through the shallower waters and following around small schools of shiny little fish, I went back to the beach, underwhelmed. "It's alright. The water was still a little murky from the storm last night." I took my place on the beach and watched Jack as he swam way out to where the waters turned dark, to the buoys we were told not to cross. With a tip of his flippers, he dove way underneath the surface, and since he can hold his breath for a long time, I totally lost him for the next 20 minutes. Just when I was starting to get worried, he popped up and waved. "That was totally amazing! Did you see all the beautiful coral? There were the spiky ones, and the smooth ones and the ones that look like big orbs but you don't really know what they are... I think I counted about 30 different types of fish! And the water was so clear!"
What???! I totally missed all that. So I put on my snorkel mask, handed him our valuables (a watch and 40 ringgits) and went out again, this time setting my sight on the dark blue waters in the distance. What a difference! I saw big fish, little fish, red fish, blue fish! There was a purple fish that looked like it was wearing pink lipstick, and then it's counterpart pink fish wearing purple lipstick. I saw giant sea urchins and made myself hungry thinking about uni, and sea cucumbers, and reefs and reefs of pretty coral. And when I got back to the beach, there was Jack, holding a burger and 12 sticks of chicken satay! Yay! After lunch, we headed back to the dock to catch our 2 pm boat back to the resort.
We went back to the room, and reapplied our sunscreen because next on our itinerary? Jet skiing! I've never done it before but Jack has, and we booked one for half an hour. What a thrill! I started off sitting in the back and screamed my head off as Jack drove. Then we switched places and I tried steering, and since I'm really bad with figuring out how to balance and turn at the same time, we had a few hairy moments, and a few blind ones as well, as the salt water sprayed in my eyes making them sting. But it was definitely worth it! By the end of our half hour, my arm muscles were so tense from gripping the handle that I was definitely ready for my next activity... the SPA. 
Now this isn't just any spa. This is actually a spa that I'd heard of even before we booked our trip to Malaysia. I think I read about the Mandara spa in one of those "Asian Spa" books that I'm often drawn to in bookstores. When I entered the waiting area, I felt like I was stepping into another world, filled with tropical scents, tranquil candle glow, relaxing gamelan music and beautiful dark wood floors and furniture. My attendant led me to my very own "suite," a large, beautiful room with floor to ceiling windows on one wall exposing a lush, flowering garden, and mirrors reflecting from various parts of the room. I was seated in a rattan easy chair as she watched me drink a ginger tonic, to "stimulate my senses." I received a heavenly lemongrass foot bath, and then the best massage of my entire life. Oh my. This woman can't weigh more than 100 pounds, and yet, the strength in her fingers made it seem that at times she must have been suspended on something above me, pushing down with all her force. And yet, when I opened my eyes and peeked through the donut cushion, there were her two feet, firmly planted on the ironwood floor, next to the frosted glass bowl with a single yellow flower floating inside. I was in awe. My massage was called the "Balinese Massage," and Connie and Paul, when you guys go to Bali, you must get a massage everyday. The Balinese sure know how to do it! After an hour, she moved on to my facial and though my eyes were closed as she began spreading a luxuriant yogurt all over my face, I could hear Jack enter the room and go through everything I had just been through as he was being prepared for his massage on the table next to mine. Halfway through the facial, I was suddenly overcome with a momentary pang of sadness as I realized that this heavenly experience was drawing to a close. But then I was once again lost in the moment of having cucumber mush massaged into my face.
When it was all over (our attendants had timed our services so that we would both be finished at exactly the same time), we just looked at one another in absolute amazement. "That was the best massage I've ever had!" "Me too!" we whispered to one another. We bid farewell to our two lovely attendants and stepped out into the "real world," just in time to see the beautiful, glowing, hot pink sunset over the South China Sea. Sigh... does life get any better than this?
For dinner, we joined up with our group again and headed to yet another great Chinese seafood restaurant. This time, our meal was accompanied by a fantastic cultural dance show, and I was pulled up onto stage once again by one of the male dancers looking for audience participation to try the same dance that I had done yesterday when I was up on stage at the cultural village. This time, however, the bamboo sticks were moving so much quicker, the foot movements were a little more complex and if I didn't stay right in rhythm, I would get my feet caught between those bamboo sticks that seemed to be clapping together louder and harder as the music got faster. 
Through God's grace, I made it through the dance intact, and I have both ankles and pictures to prove it! It was so much fun and definitely something I think I'll try to teach my kids next year, now that I'm such an "expert." A wonderful ending to an unreal day.
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